[Evolution-hackers] Evolution as part of groupware projects in ST Louis

[JT Moree <moreejt pcxperience com>]

Hello,
  I have been actively attempting to get Evolution to play nice with groupware for the past few 
months.  There are a few groups in St. Louis that have become interested in this subject and we are 
working towards an Open Source, Outlook Exchange replacment.

True to the nature of this subject the OGo (http://www.opengroupware.org/) project requires 
proprietary programs to connect an Open Source Mail client (Evo) with an Open Source mail Server. 
To credit, the site does mention that they are looking for alternatives.

We have been discussing ways to overcome this apparently HUGE delimma.  No one has implemented such 
a project yet.  So I have been trying to do it.

Here is a summary of what we have though about and done about the Calendar functionality related to 
Evolution:

1) Open WebDav/http standards are used by Mozilla calendar, Apple iCal to transport icalendar (.ics) 
files.
	Evolution could do the same.  I started hacking Evo to add support for this.  Unfortunately, I was 
only on 1.0.8 which was too old to be effective anyway.  I got as far as adding the GUI components 
but had some trouble understanding the code for doing the actual work.  May come back to this in the 
future.

2) Kolab (kolab.kde.org) is the German gov't funded groupware server.
	This method stores all data in IMAP email.  This makes centralized storing and sharing data very 
easy.  But this is a new implementation requiring all clients to be changed to support said interface.

3) A program could be written (and we have some preliminary notes) that translates between Kolab and 
ical for CALENDARING.
	A set of programs would have to be given priveledged access to the IMAP data store in order to 
translate the IMAP data into icalendar files and vice versa.  This would allow a hacked version of 
evo to support both ical/http(s) and Kolab.  The programs would be responsible for hiding private 
data during translation.

4) On a related note, http://multisync.sf.net can syncronize evolution calendars with other 
multi-sync client programs.  This unfortunately is not a seamless way to share data AND is a rather 
cumbersome way to share calendars between users.  this project will be important for syncing with 
PDAs and other mobile devices.

5)  Now Ogo is in the mix and I have yet to see how it stores data.  That will affect the way it is 
fit into my overall plans.  I suspect from reading some of the site that it may work much like my 
original plan for a mozilla calendar server which led to 3 above.

MOre Notes for these ideas are at
www.pcxperience.org/blog/

--
JT Moree
Xperience, Inc.
www.XperienceInc.com


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